1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of controlling printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In Patent Document 1, for example, a technique in which a server receives application data from a portable terminal, converts the application data to print data capable of being printed by rendering, and sends the converted print data to a printer is disclosed. As described above, a print control system of a push type printing is known.
In the above print control system, the server is connected to an internal network such as an internal Local Area Network (LAN) or the like. In other words, in the above print control system, the portable terminal, the server, and the printer are connected with each other in a private environment. However, recently, a wide area print service has been developed in which a server is connected to an external network such as the INTERNET or the like so that application data to be converted by the server is accepted via the external network and converted print data is also sent to a printer via the external network.
When a server connected to the external network is used to convert the application data, according to the conventional method as described above, there may be a problem as follows. Generally, there is provided a firewall between an internal network and an external network in a view of security. In such a case, the server connected to the external network cannot send the converted print data to a printer connected to an internal network. It means that according to the conventional method, a push type printing cannot be performed using a server provided in a public environment.